LDCad 1.6b (win+linux)

[Roland Melkert]

I, finally, released 1.6b

It contains mostly bugfixes and tweaks and some minor changes/additions, including:

- Fixed numerous scripting issues.
- Fixed some (mostly minor) editing issues.
- Improved part bin search.
- Extensive POV-Ray export tweaking, I mostly tried to improve transparency in mixed color parts and the handling of textured parts.
- Duplo and electrical part bin sections.
- Snapping/mirroring info for commonly used parts in the 1701 and 1801 libraries.
- Some new/tweaked templates based upon 1701/1801 parts.


Hopefully this will be the last 1.x version as I want to concentrate on 2.0 exclusively from now on, unless a very severe bug/problem is uncovered.


The Linux version is still compiled on Debian 7.5 as I didn't think it would be very useful to setup 32 and 64 bit 8.1 environments. This is very time consuming, so I prefer to do that only if people having problems with these versions on more recent distro's. Please Let me know if so. I did however fully updated the 7.5 environments.

Enjoy:
http://www.melkert.net/LDCad/download

[Jarema]

Thanks for your work.

[Joscha]

Thank you Roland!

Sorry for asking right after your update. Will there be support for space navigators? I mean it is awesome for 3D view manipulating.

Regards
Joscha

[Roland Melkert]

Thank you Roland!

Sorry for asking right after your update. Will there be support for space navigators? I mean it is awesome for 3D view manipulating.

Regards
Joscha

Maybe, if I can find an easy way of accessing the device.

I do find those things interesting, but their price (currently listed at ~160 EURO), kept me from trying it out.

[Joscha]

Thank you Roland!

Sorry for asking right after your update. Will there be support for space navigators? I mean it is awesome for 3D view manipulating.

Regards
Joscha

Maybe, if I can find an easy way of accessing the device.

I do find those things interesting, but their price (currently listed at ~160 EURO), kept me from trying it out.

A Space navigator is awesome. Once you have used it you will never try to manipulate the 3D view by mouse. A good space navigator is about 120€ https://geizhals.de/3dconnexion-spacenav...29456.html

I bought this model about 8 or 10 years ago and the quality is very good.

[Jarema]

How make LDcad look like LD4DStudio ?

[Roland Melkert]

How make LDcad look like LD4DStudio  ?

This is not possible, they are completely different kinds of programs both user wise and development wise.

You can however make any animation LD4D could handle by using the lua scripts combined with the aniTools module.

Or do you mean the heavily object oriented approach of the gui? 

I'm considering using that approach in LDCad 2.0 for editing reference lines etc.

[Jarema]

This folder holds a collection of GUI templates. Each template has it's own sub folder and should contain all files needed by the main application. The default template (in folder "default") will be used in an clean install. You can change that by modifying the "[guiTemplate]" section in the main.cfg file.

To looks like LD4DStudio:

•  I can change icons for titlebar, toolbar, etc.  - can extract them and named correctly. Right.
  
•  How set content of main.gui file correctly ?
  

[Roland Melkert]

•  I can change icons for titlebar, toolbar, etc.  - can extract them and named correctly. Right.
  
•  How set content of main.gui file correctly ?
  

Yes, as long they have the same name and are of the png RGB or RGBA format. I also recommend using the same resolution. And if the default is transparent the replacement should be too.

Just create a folder besides
%appdata%/LDCad/gui/default
e.g.
%appdata%/LDCad/gui/myGUI

Inside that folder place any image you want to replace.
Contrary to the readme.txt content will be loaded from default if it can't be found in the active gui template folder.

To change the active gui edit main.cfg or use the
/prefs/gui/gui template
menu.

[David Manley]

I, finally, released 1.6b

It contains mostly bugfixes and tweaks and some minor changes/additions, including:

...

- Extensive POV-Ray export tweaking, I mostly tried to improve transparency in mixed color parts and the handling of textured parts.

...

Hi Roland,

I use the POV-Ray export capability to generate an image for inclusion on a title page for building instructions. For this purpose it is helpful for the image background colour to be white.

Unless I have missed something, at present to achieve the white background, I manually edit the POV-Ray file and change the backgroung line from

Code:

background { color srgb 0.4 }

to

Code:

background { color srgb 1.0 }

I was wondering;

1. whether I have missed a setting in LDCAD which would achieve this and, if so, where is it and
   
2. if no setting is currently available to define the background colour for a POV-Ray export, could this capability be added please?
   

Regards,

David

[Roland Melkert]

I was wondering;

1. whether I have missed a setting in LDCAD which would achieve this and, if so, where is it and
   
2. if no setting is currently available to define the background colour for a POV-Ray export, could this capability be added please?
   

You can edit
%appdata%\ldcad\povray\default\globalSettings.pov
to make it the default.

or copy the whole
%appdata%\ldcad\povray\default
folder and edit it in the copy to prevent it reverting upon a upgrade.

All folders in
%appdata%\ldcad\povray
will be listed in the "Code donor" option on the "POV options" tab of the export dialog.

[David Manley]

You can edit
%appdata%\ldcad\povray\default\globalSettings.pov
to make it the default.

or copy the whole
%appdata%\ldcad\povray\default
folder and edit it in the copy to prevent it reverting upon a upgrade.

All folders in
%appdata%\ldcad\povray
will be listed in the "Code donor" option on the "POV options" tab of the export dialog.

Thank you. Nice and easy.

Regards,

David

[Jaco van der Molen]

I, finally, released 1.6b

Since I was a bit absent lately, I read this now and say THANKS!

[Jaco van der Molen]

Question: what is the difference between using the zipped and unzipped version of the LDraw Library?
I have setup a totally new and fresh install of LDraw tools on a new PC and was wondering...

[Roland Melkert]

Question: what is the difference between using the zipped and unzipped version of the LDraw Library?
I have setup a totally new and fresh install of LDraw tools on a new PC and was wondering...

Zipped should be faster, especially on non SSD's.
It also prevents wasting disk space due to the many small files when using unpacked.

[Jaco van der Molen]

Question: what is the difference between using the zipped and unzipped version of the LDraw Library?
I have setup a totally new and fresh install of LDraw tools on a new PC and was wondering...

Zipped should be faster, especially on non SSD's.
It also prevents wasting disk space due to the many small files when using unpacked.

Ah, OK. I see. And can I switch between them?
I choose unpacked but reading this I think I want to try the zipped one.
Can one also add more zipped libraries? Unofficial for example?

[Roland Melkert]

I choose unpacked but reading this I think I want to try the zipped one.
Can one also add more zipped libraries? Unofficial for example?

you can use them mixed. Same goes for the shadow libraries.

[Milan Vančura]

Hi Roland.

I was surprised why so many same parts are shown in the part bin - and then I found this is a rendering bug, visible not only in the part bin but in the model as well: Trans Clear parts with print on them are shown as not having any pattern when viewed from the back side. So, for example, all panels look same on the attached part bin screenshot.

If it is not a worth to fix this in 1.6b, can you fix it in 2.0?

[Jaco van der Molen]

Hi Roland.

I was surprised why so many same parts are shown in the part bin - and then I found this is a rendering bug, visible not only in the part bin but in the model as well: Trans Clear parts with print on them are shown as not having any pattern when viewed from the back side. So, for example, all panels look same on the attached part bin screenshot.

If it is not a worth to fix this in 1.6b, can you fix it in 2.0?

All panels look the same to me anyway ;-)
I think it would be very nice to rotate all panels (and all printed parts for that matter) to see what patterns are on them in the part bin.

I never gave this any thought because when I need a printed part I always search for the description of the print or just hover over all parts in the bin to read the description in the status bar :-)

[Philippe Hurbain]

This is not really a bug, but a side effect of back face culling ("backwards" faces are not supposed to be seen - which is obviously wrong for transparent patterned parts). Printed parts that exist in a transparent version now contain a "BFC NOCLIP" statement that prevent this (see for example 3960ps4 or 21849ps1), but of course this is not done on parts not supposed to be transparent.

I think it would be very nice to rotate all panels (and all printed parts for that matter) to see what patterns are on them in the part bin.

You can change orientation in parts bin by using Ctrl+left mouse drag (with pointer over parts bin)

[Jaco van der Molen]

This is not really a bug, but a side effect of back face culling ("backwards" faces are not supposed to be seen - which is obviously wrong for patterned parts). Printed parts that exist in a transparent version now contain a "BFC NOCLIP" statement that prevent this (see for example 3960ps4 or 21849ps1), but of course this is not done on parts not supposed to be transparent.

I think it would be very nice to rotate all panels (and all printed parts for that matter) to see what patterns are on them in the part bin.

You can change orientation in parts bin by using Ctrl+left mouse drag (with pointer over parts bin)

Never knew that! Thanks so much for pointing that out. This makes life a lot easier ;-)

I see reset view = Ctrl+R. Very handy!

[Roland Melkert]

This is not really a bug, but a side effect of back face culling ("backwards" faces are not supposed to be seen - which is obviously wrong for transparent patterned parts). Printed parts that exist in a transparent version now contain a "BFC NOCLIP" statement that prevent this (see for example 3960ps4 or 21849ps1), but of course this is not done on parts not supposed to be transparent.

There is also an option in (1.6b) to disable bfc for transparent parts. But this still wont always fix the problem due to the drawing order.

For 2.0 I'm hoping my planned "order independent transparency" shader adventures will fix that in a HQ setting or something.

[Milan Vančura]

Thanks you all. For the explanation (Philippe), tip and plans (Roland). I tried the tip, although it was not easy to find that option in menus : And unfortunately, it works partially only, with another bugs. So I simply will count on this limitation and wit for 2.0.

[Michael Horvath]

- Extensive POV-Ray export tweaking, I mostly tried to improve transparency in mixed color parts and the handling of textured parts.

How do I export to POV-Ray? It is listed as a feature, but the docs don't explain how to do it.

http://www.melkert.net/LDCad/docs

Thanks.

[Orion Pobursky]

How do I export to POV-Ray? It is listed as a feature, but the docs don't explain how to do it.

http://www.melkert.net/LDCad/docs

Thanks.

Alt-E, choose POV-Ray.